Martingale System

The Martingale roulette system is by far the most popular strategy of all. But is it really that successful? Read our lowdown on the advantages and disadvantages of the system.

How to Place Bets According to The Martingale

The Martingale roulette strategy is being used when playing on the very outside bets, which are 1-18 (Manque) or 19-36 (Passe); red (Rouge) or black (Noir); even (Pair) or odd (Impair). Compared to inside bets, they have the maximum odds of winning (close to 50%), but also the smallest payout. In the case of winning the payout is 1:1, so you win the same amount you put in for a bet. If for example, you bet one chip on black and win, you will get your chip back plus one more chip for a win.

As we've already touched upon, the Martingale System is pretty risky, but also easy to understand, so if this is something you really want to try out then we'd recommend you do so at 888 Casino today - minimise the risk and get an early heads up with their welcome offer.

How the Martingale System Works

Another established concept for the Martingale is the roulette doubling strategy. The concept is quite simple, you place your bet on one of the very outside bets. After every coup you lose, you double your bet, and you keep doing that until you win. The first win will recover all previous losses, plus give you a profit equal to your original bet. At this point you start all over again with your original bet, which you double again until your next win.

Double Your Bets

Here is a specific example to demonstrate the concept - let’s say for example purposes that you bet one chip on black. If the ball lands on red, you lose your chip. This is the time for the first Martingale progression, you double your bet, so you bet two chips on black. If black actually shows up, you win two chips. This will recover your loss from the first round (one chip) plus wins you one chip. If instead of black red would have showed up again, you would have had to double your chips again and bet four chips on black.

Basically this could go on forever - as long as you consequently double your bet after every loss, the first win will cover all the lost chips and give you one extra chip for a win. This only works in theory though, because in a real roulette situation there is a bunch of other factors that have an influence on the course of the game and that can really screw it up for you.

So to be clear, does the Martingale roulette strategy work or not? In theory the concept indeed makes sense, even though in the long term, because of the house advantage represented by the green Zero, the odds will always be against the player. The probability of the ball landing on the outside bet you put your chip on is close to but not exactly 50 %. This however is not the main problem of the Martingale. In fact it applies to any roulette strategy, since there is simply no way to compensate for the house advantage.

Dangers of The Martingale

So let's take a look at why the Martingale roulette strategy is considered extremely risky, particularly by those advanced roulette players and professionals. The main problem about this roulette strategy is the danger that the player runs out of money really quickly, especially after only a few rounds. Perhaps, if not that, the bets might hit the table limit if the player lost too many times in a row, which forces them to double and redouble their bet over and over. Once the limit is being reached, the player doesn’t get another chance to double their bet again, thus not being able to cover his row of losses. At this point the Martingale system has pretty much failed.

In the table (below) you can see how quickly the amount of chips get alarmingly high during a (very possible) losing streak. For example, after losing ten rounds you'd already need to bet 1024 chips if you wanted to be able to cover all previous losses. Now add another 1023 chips to that – the ones you have lost up to this point – and then you can maybe imagine how quickly the player goes bankrupt or hits the table limit.

If the player gets to the point where there is no chance to double their bet anymore, they lose massive amounts of chips. And not only that the player loses lots of money all at once, but that usually also happens in a very short period of time.

Of course it seems quite unlikely to lose ten or more times in a rows. The thing about the Martingale roulette strategy is that a player has to play a lot of games to even win an acceptable amount, since for each successful 'Martingale round' they win only one chip – an outcome that would be satisfying for hardly anybody. So what this all mean? The more rounds that are being played, the higher the chances are to have a bad losing streak, and as a result go bankrupt or hit the table limit. It's this risk that keeps experienced roulette pros from using the Martingale system.

Is It Allowed to Use the Martingale?

A lot of roulette players that want to start playing strategically wonder if it is even allowed to make use of the Martingale in a real casino, or online at somewhere like 888 Casino legally? The answer to that is simple - of course the Martingale is allowed, why wouldn’t it be? The casinos don't take too much of a risk when it means losing money, they've made sure of that by placing the zero on the roulette wheel. Also the table limits protect them of high losses. Quite the opposite is the case actually, in the long term, the casinos always make a lot of money off the players, no matter if they play with a strategy or without.

If you want to make your own Martingale experience, or if you would prefer trying other strategies (for example the D’Alembert System which is based on a lot flatter progression) it is of course your own preference. Either way 888 Casino is one of the best places to go when it comes to online roulette.

Permanent Winnings Thanks to The Martingale?

It can definitely not hurt to try out the Martingale for yourself. Especially since 888 Casino offers a free play money mode as well – the ideal opportunity to challenge your own luck with the Martingale roulette strategy (you can of course bet for real money too if that’s what you want). For a certain period of time (probably), the Martingale will bring you small winnings. However, in the long term, because of its steep progression, the strategy is extremely risky. Sooner or later every roulette player has a bad Martingale experience – and that is usually a very painful one. You've been given fair warning!